Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films

(Hardback, 3rd edition)

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In this new edition of Licence To Thrill, James Chapman builds upon the success of his classic work, regarded as the definitive scholarly study of the history of the James Bond film series from the first picture, Dr No (1962), to the present. He considers the origins of the films in the spy thrillers of Ian Fleming and examines the production histories of the films in the contexts of the British and international film industries. This edition includes a new introduction and chapters on Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021). Chapman explores how the films have changed over time in response to developments in the wider film culture and society at large. He charts the ever-evolving Bond formula, analysing the films representations of nationhood, class, and gender in a constantly shifting cinematic and ideological landscape.

Reviews

Over two decades after its initial publication in 1999, Licence to Thrill remains the go-to academic and popular study of the James Bond film franchise. In this third edition, Chapman updates his excellent cultural history and nuanced analyses of the Bond films to include the final Daniel Craig film, No Time to Die. A completely new introduction offers insight into the explosion of Bond criticism in the twenty-first century. -- Oliver Buckton, Florida Atlantic University, USA
In this new edition of Licence to Thrill, James Chapman exhibits his keen critical sensibility and capacious knowledge of film history to address the corpus of Bond films, including the most recent of these starring Daniel Craig as Ian Flemings most famous creation. The result is an indispensable study that every scholar and fan alike will want (and need) to read. -- Stephen Watt, Indiana University, USA

Author Bio

James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. He is the editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and his most recent books include Dr No: The First James Bond Film (2022), Contemporary British Television Drama (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) and Hitchcock and the Spy Film (I.B. Tauris, 2018).